


at my ends

by MythologicalHoe



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Pianist, Angst, Awkward Flirting, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Illnesses, Inspired by Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso | Your lie in April, Major Illness, Musicians, Painting, Rain, Rewrite, Rewrite of Old Fic That I Orphaned, loosely inspired
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 15:55:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20799209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythologicalHoe/pseuds/MythologicalHoe
Summary: A rewrite of a fic that i wrote and orphaned on another accountRey has always been a sick kid. But one day she gets enough strength to go outside and meet Ben Solo...





	1. prologue

When Rey Kenobi was born, no one would have expected that she was sick. She was a normal baby who was born into a normal family. It seemed that everything bad seemed to happen after her first birthday. Her father died in a car accident, and her mother died, leaving her in the care of her grandfather. Obi Wan. After her mother died, Rey fell ill.

No one knew why, but she did. She barely made it to her second year. 

**

For as long as Rey had remembered, she had been sick. Her grandfather told her that it was her immune system that was weaker than the rest, it caused her to stay in her bed most days. She would’ve been bored if she wasn’t always so tired. Today was the first day in a while where Rey felt like she could get up and look out her window. The sun was shining bright and dandelions started to sprout out of the ground. Rey could feel excitement mounting as she surveilled the kids playing outside. 

It took her a few minutes of staring outside at the kids that were playing in the field before she noticed a small boy playing by himself off to the side of everything and got the courage go get dressed herself. She ran downstairs with the blue ball she often played with. 

"Woah slow down there," Her grandfather stopped her as she careened down the stairs. "Where are you headed off to?"

"I want to play," Rey said simply. "I saw a boy that looked lonely. I thought maybe I should play with him." Her grandfather nodded and turned to let her the rest of the way down the stairs, a small smile on his face.

"Good," he said, "Come back as soon as your tired though, I don't want you getting hurt or worn out."

"Yeah, yeah Grandpa." The eight year old dismissed him. "I will,"

She ventured out for the first time in a while, bouncing her blue ball on the paved path towards the field. Kids were playing with footballs and a few weird looking teenagers sat off to the side a few yards away, but Rey sat down next to the silent boy with the curly hair. He eyed her for a minute as she stared at him expectantly. He didn't say anything. 

"My name's Rey," the small girl said. The boy was silent, and for a minute Rey wasn't sure if he knew how to talk.

“Ben,” was all he said. She nodded. Then saw the cars he was playing with and set her ball down.

“Can I play?”

Silence.

“Please!” She shouted. She knew that it wasn’t nice to shout, but he was taking a long time to answer and she was starting to get antsy waiting for him to respond to her. 

“Yes, just don't shout like that.” she nodded and picked up a car, starting to make engine sounds and race him. “No. Engines don't sound like that.” He said.

“ Vroom? ”

“Better,” the both of them were mostly contained to themselves, but that was okay. They played past most of the other children's attention span. Still outside. “So… Rey… where do you live?” The kid asked. She pointed to the house at the end of the cul de saq. He seemed confused. “Really? I live right down there, three houses down. I've never seen you. Are you new?”

"I'm not new around here. I just... don't go out a lot. Last year I was really sick and could barely walk most days. And I've always been weak physically so I can't play sports like the other kids."

"Oh--" Ben said. That explained a lot. It explained why she only weighed 80 pounds soaking wet and why she seemed so shy, even to him. "Well that's fine with me. I don't like sports that much anyway.”

“What do you like?”

“Uhm, I’m not sure. A lot of things. I like cars and stuff. I play the piano.” 

“Oh, that’s so cool!” She could have sworn she saw him blush. 

“What about you?”

“I like drawing!” She exclaimed with a sudden vigor. It was beginning to get a little darker but neither of the kids noticed until a woman called out,

“Ben!”

He sighed. “That's my mom,” 

“Oh…”

“Since we live right next to each other you can walk with me,” She helped gather his cars, feeling the time passing ware down on her body. She didn't make a mention of it to the boy she had just met… Ben. “ --So, do you just like drawing?”

Rey was silent for a minute, caught her breath, and then answered, “Actually I like a lot of things. I love reading and playing pretend and fairytales and I've always wanted to walk through the woods and—” She felt dizzy for a second and went silent, focusing on her breathing, “sorry… I talk too much… got to slow down,”

“It's okay,” They were almost at his house. She felt as if she were ruining her chances at making friends. “Take your time, here.” Ben took his cars from her and then said, “So you've never been in the woods have you?” Rey shook her head no. He almost looked as if he pitied her.

“Ben?” The woman called. “Who's this?”

“No one, mom.” His tone was quite rude, but Rey didn't question it. “Listen I have to go. She probably ordered pizza or something,”

The girl nodded, “Sorry if I was a bother,”

“What?! No! Thank you… for playing with me.” The kid said. He knew this would plant an enormous smile on her face. Which it did, it was radiant, and Ben nearly smiled in return. “Bye, Rey.”

“Bye, Ben.”

"See you around,"


	2. its nice to have a friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey has a visitor come through her window

Rey had gone into the house to smell macaroni and cheese, her favorite dish. "You're in a lot later than I thought you'd be," Her grandfather said. Rey made her way to the dinner table, starting to feel sleepy already. Her hair was starting to come undone from her three buns and her feet hurt. 

"Yes," she said. "Can I have orange juice?" She had started to feel dizzy until he'd set the juice in front of her, along with a small plate of macaroni and some pills. Rey should already be used to this, she’d been taking pills for as long as she could remember. But that didn’t mean that she liked it. 

"I don't want those," she said, looking at the medicine in disgust. The old man gave her a look that said,  _ You know you're not going to win this argument. _ With one small hand, she grabbed all three pills and put them in her mouth, tipping back the orange juice next and nearly emptying half of the cup, hiccuping after all of them went down. 

"I have some cupcakes. If you're still hungry after you eat." He was fixing his own bowl, and then sat on the opposite side of her. Watching her eat. Making sure she wasn't picking at her food. "So... Did you make any friends while you were out?" Rey nodded while she was stuffing her face with macaroni, quickly filling herself up. "Really? Who?"

"Boy... Across... Street. Ben…” 

"Without chewing?"

She swallowed, "There's a boy who lives across the street. Ben. He had nice cars." She saw some recognition on his face but he didn't say anything about the boy, just continued eating. Rey became tired very quickly after she ate, and ended up falling asleep on the couch and her grandfather took her to her room, tucking her in with eight different stuffed animals, some that he had made for her himself.

“Good night, little one.” 

“Can you read me a story?” 

“Are you awake enough for that?” 

“Yeah,” She yawned shortly after and he raised an eyebrow. He read her a story, but Rey didn’t remember hearing the end of it. 

**

The next day, Rey woke up still feeling tired, her head hurt and so did her shoulders. She still wanted to get up and go out, but there was a slight drizzle outside and she wasn’t so sure that the boy would want to play with her in the first place. So she kept to her bed, sniffling. At one point her grandfather knocked on the door to see if she was awake, only for her to pretend she was still asleep.

When he left, she got up and turned on her lamp light, grabbing her sketchbook and some colored pencils, then pulled up her blanket to cover her legs. Her walls were lined with pictures of forests and fairies that she had seen in books. It was quiet in her room, the air was cool and around her drawings she didn’t really focus on how tired she was. Or the fact that the likeliness of making a friend out of the boy who lived across the street was really slim. She had started absentmindedly drawing a lake when she had heard a tap on her window. Looking up, she saw Ben tapping on the window, leaning precariously on the branch outside of her room. Quickly, Rey ran over to her window and pulled it up, backing up so the boy could clamber through.

“What are you doing?” She stared at him in disbelief, his hair was partially wet and he was still in his pajamas.

“I got bored,” Ben said. “My mom wanted me to clean my room,”

“Why didn’t you come through the front door?”

“Your grandpa said that you were asleep.”

“So you just decided to climb that tree… after he told you that I was asleep. What if I was actually asleep?” She asked. She wasn’t sure if this boy was insane or amazing. All she knew was that she was glad to have someone to talk to. 

“I would’ve gone back down and cleaned my room.” Ben shrugged. “Not that complicated,” It was the first time she’d had anyone else besides her own grandfather in her room, and she couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous. He took a special interest in the art that lined her walls. “Did you draw all this?”

“Yeah,” She said sheepishly.

He pointed to a picture of a girl sitting on a log bridge over a brook, “I like that, it’s pretty.”

“Thanks,” she said. For a minute, she paused, wondering what to say next. “So… what do you want to do?”

“I don't know,” he admitted. “Do you have any toys?”

She nodded and headed over to her closet. Struggling with a big box of building blocks, dolls, and cars. Ben instantly got the cue that she was struggling and pulled right alongside her. They freed the box and Ben pulled the lid back as Rey caught her breath. “Are you okay?”

"Yeah," she waved him off. "Come on, let's play."

**

Ben knew there was something wrong with her, something that she wasn't telling him, so he picked up the building blocks, the least exerting out of everything they could play. Rey eagerly began to build with him. Her ideas were imaginative, if anything, but hard for her to actually lay out. Her hands shook and so Ben ended up abandoning his own project to help her with her own, which was admittedly better than the small fort he was making. He didn't mind, especially because before she asserted herself, he didn't have anyone resembling a friend. 

They ended up making a castle, and when Ben's pajamas were dry, both wrapped themselves in one of Rey's blankets as she showed him one of her favorite books. 

She kept talking about the woods, and wanting to go there. He made a note to himself to take her there one day. 

Yes, he would do that.

They had been playing for what seemed like an hour when Rey's door opened and her grandfather and Ben's mom stood at the door. 

"I would be mad," the woman said, "but you're lucky that her grandfather explained the situation," Rey wasn't sure what she meant about, the situation, unless she meant Rey's ailments. She looked to Rey. "I'm Leia. Ben's mother."

"Hi," she said. "Can Ben stay a little longer?" 

"I'm sorry but Ben has to clean his room. He knows that."

"Well, can I come back?" Leia looked tired, but nodded and he stood. "Sorry, Rey."

"It's okay," she smiled at him. "I'll see you around." He actually smiled back, and she was glad to see it. Once he was gone she felt tired again and her grandpa sat on the bed next to her. 

"Pretending to be asleep, huh?"

"I'm sorry,"

"It's okay, kid. I'm not mad. I'm mostly delighted you've made a friend." He said. "But you're going to have to clean all this up, I'll help." They silently picked everything up and placed it back in the box full of toys. He picked up the latest drawing, only half finished, but clearly of sunlight hitting a lake in the middle of a forest. "This is really good," he always said that. Rey found that most adults over exaggerated their kid's talent to make the kid feel better, so she never really believed him when he said this. She yawned and then said,

"Thank you," 

They finished and she yawned. It was only ten in the morning but she felt tired again, getting in her bed. "Do you want breakfast?"

"Not really,"

"Too bad," he rubbed her back and she felt her eyes beginning to close. "I'll go make you some eggs. You can have it up here if you want." Despite herself, she was starting to feel a little bit nauseous. 

"Can I have some water too?" She asked. 

"Of course,"

Rey had tried her best to stay up long enough for Ben to come back, but she felt sick and ended up falling asleep. She hugged one of her stuffed toys and closed her eyes, the only light coming into her room was the light from the window. The fan was blowing cool air that was making it harder for her to wait for him. 

When she closed her eyes, she thought that maybe, just maybe, she would feel okay enough to actually play with him tomorrow. 


End file.
